Haunted Mansion (2023)

Is there really any point in discussing the plot of Haunted Mansion? I am going to say no. The whole thing is summed up by the title. Most people are aware of it, either from the previous movie version or the theme park ride, or both, and all you need is a good enough reason to trap a group of characters, both living and dead, in the titular location.

Writer Katie Dippold and director Justin Simien may not seem like the first choice for this kind of thing, but they work together brilliantly to deliver something that has the perfect mix of heart, humour, and ghostly delights. A lot of this is thanks to the cast (and this is a movie that even finds a role for Jared Leto without making him seem so obviously Jared Leto), but there should be an equal amount of praise given to everyone behind the camera, from the costumers and special effects teams to the production designers, sound crew, and beyond.

Rosario Dawson and Chase Dillon are the mother and son who end up in the haunted mansion, enlisting the help of others when they realise that they cannot leave. Well, technically, anyone who sets foot in the mansion CAN leave, but they end up taking a ghost home with them, being haunted and spooked until they return themselves to the mansion. That happens to the characters played by LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, and Danny DeVito, each one becoming coming along to the hub of paranormal activity with some of their own baggage in tow.

Each to their own, but I am surprised that this seems to have been dismissed, and even disliked, by so many. I cannot help wondering if more people need to actually sit down and watch this, perhaps letting their opinion of the film be tainted by the previous one. I admit that I also found enough in that Eddie Murphy vehicle to enjoy, but I am starting to think less of it now that I have had so much fun with this version. If you have younger viewers who are already wanting some spooky viewing choices then this gets things pretty spot on, with the ghostly goings on nicely tempered by moments of humour that don’t unbalance and upset the atmosphere.

Stanfield is a very good lead, working hard to portray someone equally mystified, scared, and buoyed by the idea of such active spirits. Viewers know from very early on that he has been drowning in grief, and the mansion may give him a way to deal with that. Dawson is in protective mother mode, Wilson does his familiar optimistic schtick, and both DeVito and Haddish add to the fun in a way that keeps things lively without ever stealing the focus away from the main characters. Dillon is the one most likely to steal any focus, giving a performance that is sweet and entertaining, and his nervousness is often the funniest part of the first half of the film. Leto gets to be the villain of the piece, a ghost scarier and meaner than the others, and Jamie Lee Curtis is a good casting choice for the role of Madame Leota (mainly seen as the head in a large crystal ball).

I had a great time with this. The more I think about it, the less I can think to criticise, and this is coming from someone who isn’t exactly a big fan of Leto or Haddish. The emotional manipulation works, the ghosts are a perfect mix of phantasmagorical fun and age-appropriate scariness, and the comedy kept me chuckling away when it was supposed to. All in all, this is great family entertainment for those brave enough to wander through the mansion.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: The Card Counter (2021)

We have seen all of this before, for the most part. Writer-director Paul Schrader doesn’t mind that. He wants viewers to remember what they have seen before. Because this is a film that takes you through a lot of familiar places on the way to a slightly unexpected destination.

Oscar Isaac plays someone who goes by the name of William Tell. He served a lengthy sentence in prison, for something that will be revealed later on. Prison is where he learned to count cards, he became a master of blackjack. He’s also a pretty dab hand at poker. That makes him of interest to La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), a woman who gets great poker players bankrolled to play at the tables with higher stakes. William isn’t really interested in playing poker for a lot of money though, but finds his opinion subject to change when he meets young Cirk (Tye Sheridan). Cirk knows something about William’s past, and wants the two of them to pay a visit to another important figure from their past, Gordo (Willem Dafoe). Cirk doesn’t really know the cards that are being dealt, however, while William knows exactly how things will play out.

Very typical of Schrader’s work, The Card Counter is a solid character piece that ultimately just doesn’t do quite enough in the first two thirds of the runtime to make it all worthwhile once you know where things are going in the third act. The four main cast members, and it is worth noting that Dafoe is onscreen for only a minute or two of screentime, all work well, separately and together, and the leisurely pacing allows them to hold your attention and deliver some stellar work.

You could argue that the performances are better than the material, which wouldn’t be entirely unfair, but both ultimately work to elevate one another. Isaac gives one of his best performances, a dead soul with one huge talent (but he’s far from lifeless), and I definitely would not want to see him across from me during a poker game, whether he has been helped by props onscreen or has learned the card skills. Sheridan is excellent alongside him, a young man with a desire for revenge that he doesn’t realise could take him down a dead end road. Then you have Haddish, also giving one of the best performances of her career so far. Her character is the perfect mix of cynicism and optimism, and she shows how obviously she is drawn to Isaac’s character. Dafoe is right for his role, even if it’s a shame to see him so underused, and he does well.

Perhaps Schrader wanted to challenge viewers by delivering something so full of things we’ve seen so often before, or perhaps he wanted to use the familiarity to help pull the rug out during the third act. Whatever his reasoning, it doesn’t quite work as well as he hopes. That’s because he doesn’t add anything else to the mix, in terms of style or truly memorable dialogue. He still gets enough right to make this a worthy film though, helped immensely by the cast.

Maybe not a full house, this remains a gripping and intriguing tale of past sins, prison life, and poker tactics. 

7/10

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The Kitchen (2019)

Based on a comic book series, by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle, The Kitchen feels more like something so strange and unbelievable that it must be based on a true story. I'm slightly disappointed that it isn't true, considering how badass the main characters are.

Melissa McCarthy is Kathy Brennan, Tiffany Haddish is Ruby O'Carroll, and Elisabeth Moss is Claire Walsh. These three women are friends and they are married to men who are part of a rather illegal lifestyle. Basically, they're gangster's wives, but with none of the rewards that you normally see heaped on women in this kind of situation. And things get worse when their husbands are arrested and jailed, leaving the women to fend for themselves. After being given an insulting amount to live on, they decide to help the local criminals collect their protection money. Then they end up deciding to run some of the territory themselves.

Although it's very familiar territory, The Kitchen differentiates itself from other films like this by showing the women moving into power, and also by showing how they don't necessarily have to copy everything that the men do. They work smart, they use the right connections, and they often decide to show a little compassion when others may have been ruthless. The men they married seemed to enjoy their lifestyle, whereas the women are forced into their position, growing into their roles as certain characteristics become necessary.

Writer-director Andrea Berloff makes her debut in the big chair, and does a great job of things. She's written a number of screenplays before this one, but this feels like a project with material that she finds more to connect with, in terms of the interesting mechanics of how someone develops a reputation in the criminal world, and in terms of the female angle.

All three leads are excellent, and all have a very different view on their predicament. Moss takes time to ease into her role, having arguably suffered the most from her husband, but grows with confidence as she befriends the dangerous Gabriel O'Malley (Domnhall Gleeson, doing a decent job). McCarthy is the one who seems the most well-balanced, doing what needs to be done and trying to manage the growth in ways that don't exceed their aims, and Haddish has fun as the woman who becomes the most at ease with her new lifestyle. Margo Martindale is an entertainingly horrible mother-in-law, and everyone else onscreen does just fine.

With everyone, and everything, in place, it's worth mentioning how well Berloff also does at pitching the tone perfectly. This is an entertaining film, but it neither makes too much light of the choices being made, and nor does it wallow in one bleak scene after another. It creates a movie world that allows for serious moments, some lightness, and a building of tension as viewers wonder just how dangerous things might get for the women doing a much better job in "a man's world" than the men who wanted to keep them in their place.

And with a pretty great dramatic turn from McCarthy, it also allows me to say that even if you can't stand The Heat, try getting into The Kitchen.

8/10

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Girls Trip (2017)

The very basic premise of Girls Trip is a group of four friends getting back together to enjoy some leisure time that will include drinking, dancing, rekindling their sex drive, and a few arguments as they grow apart before maybe coming closer together. It's nothing we haven't seen before. The main twist here is that one of the group (Ryan Pierce, played by Regina Hall) is successful and famous, which makes the waters a lot trickier to navigate when her friends - played by Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Tiffany Haddish - start to suspect there may be a bit of trouble in her seemingly perfect marriage (to Stewart, played by Mike Colter).

Despite one or two very enjoyable moments, including an absolutely hilarious sequence in which the girls try to act normally while under the influence of hallucination-inducing substances aka tripping balls, Girls Trip is quite disappointing as a comedy. The script, by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, could have easily trimmed down one or two characters, and one more set-piece to rival the hallucinatory sequence would have been enough to push this above average. A few decent lines here and there don't do enough to make this consistently amusing.

Director Malcolm D. Lee doesn't add anything of note. His work is capable enough, following the predictable script almost to the letter (it would seem), and he tends to just have faith in his leading ladies. Which would be a wise choice if they were all on the same level.

I like Regina Hall. A lot. I always have, and think I always will. I have also been a big fan of every performance I have seen from Queen Latifah. So I enjoyed both of them in this film. And it was a bonus that Hall is actually given a few excellent, and unexpected, moments to show just how good she can act, especially in the second half of the film. Smith and Haddish, on the other hand, just don't work as well. It's not that they're terrible, and the earlier scenes with Haddish arranging her leave from work are actually very funny, but they're just nowhere near as watchable or charismatic as the other two. Colter does well in the bad man role, Larenz Tate doesn't get that much screentime as a nice guy, and Kate Walsh does a lot with her small role, playing a white woman who tries to act and speak like the rest of the group, despite other people explaining that it's not something she can really make work.

Far from terrible, it's just a shame that Girls Trip rarely has enough laughs throughout. Which is always a mark against something being sold as a comedy.

5/10

You can buy Girls Trip here.
Americans can pick it up here.